Wednesday, 15 December 2010

I sure had fun singing, eating, being involved in relays and dodging water balloons. It was great to see new families

come along and join us as well as families who have been at KIDSPACE for a while. This year we thought it would be nice to give a present to the parents that they could treasure for a long time to come. Thanks Tamara for the huge task of taking the photos, getting them printed, trimming them to size and attaching them to the canvas. Tamara then wrapped them all so beautifully with their own wrapping paper that Ann helped the children make. The children enjoyed making the cards for their parents/whaanau and some worked hard on including drawings in their card. Rie organised the cards along with a session by Lynette Holischier who brought in her craft supplies and showed the children how to use them. Ainslee took the photos for the class of 2010 and James collated them onto one page to make this lovely momento.

Last week Isabella had come in with a warehouse catalogue wanting to buy a heart necklace for Jessie, "Mum said, "how are you going to buy that with no money", Emily pipped up, "you pay mum". I asked Isabella, "Would you like me to bring my beads in and you could make Jessie your own necklace", Isabella nodded. So Isabella created a necklace for Jessie, sifting through all the beads finding a heart shaped one (she found one), she then continued to choose her beads carefully and thread them on. Jorja, Donnagh, Kian, Ella-Rose, Lyrique, Shaydn and Hannah joined in wanting to make their own, some finished theirs that same day and others have continued to work on these this week, Later on Isabella presented with Jessie with her necklace she created and Jessie put it on, she continued to wear it into the night time for her farewell with the teachers. Through this experience some children persist with difficulty as the some beads are very small for them to handle and thread on, but they were all confident at asking me for help if they needed. When children are threading they are developing their hand and eye co-ordination as well as their pincer grip which helps with writing and gripping a pen or pencil. Lyrique and Emily were very good at helping each other out when they needed a hand. This week Jack, Taneesha, Emily joined in to make necklaces then Lyrique, Jorja and Isabella continued with the beads they had from last week to make their necklaces.

Monday, 13 December 2010

Thursday, 9 December 2010

To cater for the shared morning tea we had on Monday for our practice Christmas Concert, I did some baking with a small group of children. Trying to get in to the Christmas spirit, I thought of gingerbread biscuits. Lyrique and Ella thought we could use different cookie cutters to little men, so we decided on snowmen and Christmas trees. I gathered all the ingredients up and we set up on the table on the deck. Kian, Lyrique, Ella and Mana helped to measure and pour certain ingredients and then I passed the bowl round for everyone to have a turn at stirring and mixing. We sprinkled flour on the table and rolled the dough out with the rolling pin. The chidren helped to push the cutters in to the dough then lay them on the baking tray. Once they were cooked, we kept them fresh until our shared morning tea. When we were eating, some of the children recognised them and said 'hey, i made those!'.

Friday, 3 December 2010

Last week I introduced an activity to support children's sound awareness. My activity consisted of using glass jars filled with various levels of coloured water, to create different tones and pitches. I also provided paper coloured patterns to support children to read, and to recreate the pattern by tapping out the pattern in sequence onto the correct coloured jar. I found the children really enjoyed this activity, in which they were learning sound awareness skills such as different tones and pitches, supporting children's decoding skills in literacy. Basic maths such as interpretation of different patterns, shapes, volumes, turn taking, perseverance and self-confidence. Together with learning the primary colours. Ann

Thursday, 2 December 2010

After lunch today, Donnagh, Jorja, Hannah and Libby were all playing in the sandpit. To do something fun and exciting, I suggested that we make a volcano! The children love doing this, because its something different to just digging. We started by building our mountain of sand. We all found a spade and built the sand higher and higher. I went and found the ingredients we needed.. baking soda, vinegar and purple dye. Donnagh found a cup and we placed that in the top. I tipped some baking soda in, Jorja added the dye, and then for the first one, Donnagh added the vinegar, which was the last ingredient to mix in, to make it go all foamy! When it came out of the top, the children went 'wow', and instantly began touching it. The children look turns at adding the vinegar because that was the fun part. We kept experimenting by adding more soda or vinegar etc, to see how they would react together. Donnagh and I began talking about real volcano's and what happens when they erupt. Donnagh knew about rocks flying out, and I added that hot lava comes streaming out sometimes too.

"Children experience an envrionment where they develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds" (Exploration, Te Whariki).

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Today we celebrated Tamara's birthday. For morning tea we had sang songs, Tamara sat on the birthday chair and blew out a candle on a muffin. Tamara's husband Simon supplied the teachers with sweet birthday bakery treats and after lunch we presented Tamara with a card and birthday present the children's book "Kiss, Kiss, Yuck, Yuck".

The last lot of sunflowers we planted where all eaten by slugs that very night. So today with help our friends planted more sunflower seedlings. This time we.... cut out clear water bottles and ginger beer bottles to place in the garden around our seedlings to STOP all pests the slugs. Here Emily places her seedling very carefully in the hole she dug with a trowel. Other friends such as Donnagh, Paige, Libby, Jorja and Isabella also assisted. Lets see what these seedling look like tomorrow...

After lunch the older children with Ann, Mohanan and Jessie walked around our KIDSPACE community posting invitations in the neighbours letterboxes. We are inviting the neighbours to hear our Christmas songs and share morning tea with us, on Monday 6th December before our big children's Christmas concert on Saturday 11th December, at Onekawa Park.

Ainslee printed the invites on whero coloured paper and taking turns we all posted one into a letterbox.

A few children could identity the letters and numbers on the boxes and we talked of the numbers and colours of their home letterboxes too.

"Children develop skill in using the counting system and mathematical symbols and concepts, such as numbers for meaningful purposes", Communication, Te Whaariki.

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

We have recently purchased a new vacuum cleaner for KIDSPACE. The old vacuum cleaner bags that we ordered don't fit this vacuum so if any one would like one or some, you are welcome to them. Details are Numatic NVM 2B/2.

Monday, 22 November 2010

Jojo died last week (of old age) and since then the children have been missing her and talking about her. For many of the children, this has been their first experience of death. The children learn a great deal when caring for pets especially when they can pat them.

Ann has some baby guinea pigs that she is seeking homes for. She has brought them into KIDSPACE several times now and the children have enjoyed cuddling them. We would love to have a replacement for Jojo and possibly a young rabbit that we can train to be handled by the children as Murphy runs free and is not impressed with children crowding around him. We feel that Murphy is too old to introduce young pets into his environment so we are looking to see if we can find him a new home.

If you know of anyone who would provide a kind, caring home for Murphy, please talk to one of the teachers.

Last Sunday, Irene, Monica, Jess and Tamara all did a one day revalidation of their first aid certificates to keep them up to date. Pity we didn't take a camera to get some photos of our poor 'victims' all bandaged up! Ainslee and Jessie did their revalidation a few months ago and Rie and Ann are doing their full (2 day) first aid course in December.

We have been invited to the Central School Christmas Concert next Tuesday 30 November 11am. We are currently planning to take 12 children, however if we could get a couple more helpers we could take more children to the concert. Let us know if you can help (you don't need a car).

Thursday, 18 November 2010

On Tuesday 16th November, KIDSPACE children and teachers said goodbye to our guinea pig JoJo. He died peacefully the night before. Libby helped Ann to make a special little box for him to be buried in. The children gathered on the mat outside after morning tea and we held a tangi for JoJo. I told the children what had happened.. our little friend JoJo had died. The children felt sad and asked 'why?' questions, that we simply could not answer. I walked around with JoJo and showed the children. They could give him a little pat if they wanted to. We sung our KIDSPACE song to JoJo to say goodbye. Jess dug his hole in the ground, for where he would be buried. We lay him in there, and I took the children 3-4 at a time, to have a look, sprinkle glitter and say goodbye.

At the mat time after lunch, Jessie also talked to the children about how they are feeling. These were some of the replies: 'Happy because JoJo is in a special box (Caelyn), 'I feel sad. I made a box for JoJo with glue and glitter on it' (Libby), 'I'm feeling sad because I want to hold JoJo' (Jorja), 'Watching JoJo in the hole (in the garden)' (Emily), 'JoJo died with her eyes open' (Kian), 'I feel sad. I wanted to cry because she died' (Lyrique).

Healthy self-esteem helps children to deal with feelings of sadness. Many things can make a child feel sad, and for different reasons. When children can identify their sad feelings, and make sense of the losses that underlie them, they build the self-trust needed to cope, accept and move on (When im feeling sad by Trace Moroney).

It was a sunny day so I thought it would be nice for Aimee, Travis and Jaz to go for a ride in the pram to the supermarket. Our temporary student Louise came with us also. On the way Jaz spotted a dog. Travis and her got quite excited, she wasn't to happy when it went in the opposite direction though. On arrival we got a few ingrediants like cream of tartar, cheese and a new cheese grater. Travis helped hold the cheese in the pram and Jaz held the cream of tartar. Aimee must have been tired because not long after arriving at the supermarket she fell asleep in the pram. Once we paid for everything we made our way back to KIDSPACE, Travis pointed out the big green rubbish bins (his favourite), and noticed a cat once again Jaz and Travis made excited noises and pointing, to what they saw walking along the grass.

This group of children enjoyed there time, exploring what they could see on their walk. They are also developing awareness of the wider world of the supermarket and how it works.

Thursday, 11 November 2010

This week I brought in my two week old baby Guinea pigs to show all the children. A white one, two white and greys, and a multi-coloured white, black, and brown one. All the children were eager to have a pat and a cuddle, and were very gentle.Acacia really liked the multi-coloured one and gave him lots of cuddles throughout the day. Xavier also liked the multi-coloured one and enjoyed giving him a little pat. Jordan and Jordan's Mum enjoyed giving the white and grey one a little pat. From the guinea pig visit, children were learning how to care for the well-being of the baby Guinea pigs. Exploration- Te Whaariki.

If anyone would like a baby guinea pig as a pet for their child, please see me.

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